Three more down, more to go...

***This blog is a result of extreme work procrastination. I wish I had posted it earlier, but I couldn't find the time and my internet has been down at home***

There are so many things in and around San Francisco that I want to see, do, explore. Two weekends ago I got to take a bite out of 3 of them, which was pretty damn rewarding.

Yerba Buena Gardens
It was a windy, sunny, yet chilly Sunday, so when Jeremy and I were biking past the gardens we made a detour so we could soak up some sun and explore some inner city green space. There was a waterfall with quotes engraved in the walls behind it by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Looking out from behind the falls
Chilling in the sunshine

View of the Museum of Modern Art


Embarcadero and Museum Mechanique

After our impromptu pit stop we continued onward and ended up taking another random stop when we saw this thing

I love public art, it was hard to get a good picture of the bow and arrow, but I like this one with the bridge behind it and the yellowy grass on the ground


Afterwards we finally made it to our original destination of the day - The Museum Mechanique! It is basically a free museum full of mechanically operated musical instruments and antique arcade machines. You do have to pay to use them, but most are only a quarter or two. Some were pretty cool to watch perform. Others, well...

Ok, so I still found that amusing.
These are from this carnival scene that would 'come to life' after depositing 50 cents.
Mmm...doesn't that cotton candy look good?
Jeremy got a pretty high score on Ms. Pacman. I think he ranks 26th based off the Twin Galaxies website from another high score he achieved, but this one kicks some ass too!


Palace of Fine Arts
Despite being hungry and tired we decided to make a go for it and bike over to the Palace of Fine Arts. This is a building that was constructed out of six million dollars in donations, plus another ten million in bonds and taxes for The Panama Pacific Exposition of 1915. The Exploratorium is also located there (we didn't have time to go though) and a nice park. Unfortunately for us, but probably fortunate for it's future, they were undergoing construction and we couldn't go under the main dome.
We got there at a pretty cool time of day, as the sun started to set.

Can you see me?

There were some swans out in the pond, they were pretty brave, one of them almost ate a 'punter' as Erikka puts it, better known as a little lap dog.
Attack mode

You think they could have invested in a cooler fountain.

Afterwards we ate at Baghdad Nights in the Lower Haight, who serve Iraqi dishes. The place was practically empty, but we had the nicest waiter in the world plus some really great food. Their bread was unbelievably awesome. I am a huge naan fan, and this bread is one step up. It has both the softness and crunchy bits making it a great compliment to the food.

Another cool thing about that weekend was getting to reconnect with Joe Kowalski! I hadn't seen him since probably some random Acrobrats show in Boston, and him and his girlfriend Emily just relocated to San Francisco. We went to see The Disposable Film Festival, which wasn't as exciting as it sounds, but was worth it to just hang out and catch up.

Unrelated to that particular weekend I went to see two bands I like perform - The Blow and Mirah. This was part of my Christmas gift from Jeremy. The show was great, I don't think my videos do it justice. Khaela Maricich from The Blow is such an entertainer, her set was basically half talking and half singing.


Mirah's set was more focused on just music, which was beautiful. I would like to get more albums of hers now.


Lastly, thanks to Joe, I was informed of Get Mortified. I got to see it this past Friday with my roommates at the Makeout Room. The deal with get mortified is "a comic excavation of adolescent artifacts (journals, letters, poems, lyrics, home movies, stories and more) as shared by their original authors before total strangers." It is awesome and totally worth checking out. They have performances in different cities around the country.

Anyways, guess that's all for now...

Tech my Advice

I found this article about technology ruining relationships. This is actually something I think about a lot these days. First email replaced snail mail and cell phones replaced home phones. As a result, postage goes up, and people are instantly accessible. I tried not to get a cell phone for a long time, waiting until I graduated from college. Now, 5 years later, I would be lost without it, like many people, and almost get panicked if I forget it at home. What if my car breaks down, or I get lost?! It's so hard to remember those days when I would just pull over into a gas station and ask for directions, or find a pay phone, put in a quarter and actually remember, off the top of my head, the number of the person I needed to reach.

Anyways, I know I usually blog about things that I do, and I will be blogging about my last weekend pretty soon when I find some spare time, but I also thought this was something worth thinking about. I feel technology has just allowed us to become more impersonal with one another. Interaction with people is more often taken for granted. People definitely use text messages and email for serious conversations that should actually be done face to face. Written text can only convey so much emotion, and with that, it can be so easily misconstrued and misunderstood.

I still like to send snail mail. If there's something important I want to talk about, I'll set aside some time to meet with the person face to face if it's at all possible. Sure it's not as convenient, and technology has it's place in my heart, yet I hope I never stop reaching out and truly connecting with people, not just my newest techie gadget.

the reward

So I've been blogging on my myspace page about the 7 day cleanse Amanda, my roommate, and I did.

Well, tonight, we had our reward. Massages at
International Orange. Incredible. I cannot say enough good stuff about this spa. It was not cheap, but I felt like royalty. First we steamed, then showered and waiting in the lounge area. This is where there's a never ending supply of water and tea, plus little treats like dried cranberries, almonds, chunks of dark chocolate and ginger chews. After the massage we steamed and showered again. I am still on a high from it while I'm writing this. The world has slowed down. I just feel great. It was the perfect reward since it actually compliments the cleanse very well in getting the toxins out of your body.

Not only that, I feel like I had an affair! His name was Iyla. This was my first male masseuse ever and he completely rocked. We talked about the cleanse and eating healthy for the first half. He told me about roasted barley tea and how it's caffeine free and has a similar taste to coffee. It was nice and relaxing and made it more comfortable.

I'm pretty sure this is the feeling I've been waiting for throughout this whole cleanse. I just feel good and healthy and whole.

home for the holidays - revisited

This was officially my first year 'traveling home for the holidays'. I was stuffed onto a jam-packed plane, amidst tempting offers at $500 vouchers to take another flight. I thought about it in a fleeting second as I was boarding and realized how badly I wanted to go home and that they'd have to up it to maybe $1000 for me to consider it seriously. :) The flight was pretty tight, but I got this cool airplane shot.

Luckily, even though I went through Chicago and was scared of inclement weather, I made it out of there and to Boston with a slight delay. All seemed swell. Sandy was there and waiting, and I just had to grab my bags........wait, where the 'F' is my other bag?@! Apparently it was left in Chicago. They told me they would deliver it the next day to my parent's house in NH. Of course this was the bag with ALL OF MY GIFTS IN IT! All I could think of was fighting with AA all week long in a struggle to get a hold of my luggage before I had to go back to CA. BUT, worrying was unnecessary because they delivered it promptly the next morning, everything still in tact.

As I walked into my parent's house, I might as well have just been visiting from Boston. The only difference was the shiny new hardwood floors. Everything else was status quo. It was good to just be around my family though, talking to them in person and seeing their smiling faces. Plus, I came bearing a cold and it was comforting to be at 'home'. Thanks to Jerry I started my 'resting' immediately by staying up till 1am mindlessly and compulsively working on a puzzle in the basement.

Per usual, Christmas eve was spent going to the relatives after a quick stop off at friends of the family's house. This is where I always rock at least one toasted almond cocktail. Sooo good! All in all the whole Christmas eve ordeal was sort of surreal. Perhaps it was due to being jet lagged, slightly sick, or just not being fully in the holiday spirit. Either way, Christmas day was nice with the family, opening gifts. I got this super hipster Chrome bag that I've been dying for - it's waterproof and gives me street cred. But seriously, my old bag basically had the structure of a wet paper towel and was just waiting to disintegrate. Plus I got a DVD burner for my computer and a mango cutter - which completely rocks! Have you ever tried cutting a mango? It is not easy, but this cores it so simply. Seems frivolous, but if you like mangoes, it's worth it. I got a bunch of other great gifts too, like some artwork in hand painted frames, fishing rods, ski pass, word games, birdie salt and pepper shakers...the list goes on. Brag brag brag :)

After the holiday dinner, the rest of the day was spent with friends. It doesn't get better then that. Which leads into the day AFTER Christmas! The Potluck Party! How fun. I was so looking forward to this mostly because almost everyone was able to make it minus some NYC folk :(. Even Patrick made it up from MA to say hi. I feel it was a success. Everyone cooked food and brought it over. I don't think there was anything we didn't like. Plus we raised over $300, which is now over $600 with Jerry's company's match plan for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Not only that, there was game playing! See how excited, anatomically correct and shocked everyone looks?!
I hope we keep doing this every year, and knowing that I feel that way probably means it will happen! mwahahaha!

Thursday I headed down to Boston with Sandy. It was good to bop around Harvard Square together, do a little shopping, check everything out. Afterwards Gary and I caught up at Fugakyu! I absolutely LOVE their sushi and it was delicious! Plus on the drive to Erikka's house in JP we saw this! Then I got to see Erikka and Jason's new apartment in Jamaica Plain. It is great, and so perfect for them. I liked the handmade ornaments and decorations. There were also lots of little things showing both their awareness of being green - cloth napkins, natural soap and toothpaste, etc... Plus Erikka let me use Jason's pillow! (shhhh...) It was super comfy. Erikka and I spent some time walking around downtown JP and playing games. It was great just hanging out together, as always.

Friday night I got pizza on my way to Tom and Marna's. The cool thing was I was just walking by a place, and got a slice and it was good. It's tough to find good pizza in SF, although I've been pleasantly surprised a couple times. It was nice catching up with T&M and they even let me borrow one of their vehicles for the weekend so I could bring up my storage items from their basement to my parents to get ready to ship out to me.

Saturday I got to catch up with Greg for a few, drop by James's football watching party then chat with the lady's up at Char's parents. I wish there was a tape recorder for the conversations we had! I think I ate half of Charleen's food while I was there.

Then Sunday I headed back to Somerville. Got to go bowling at Sacco's Bowl Haven! It was the perfect ending to my stay on the east coast. That night it started sleeting and got really cold and it sort of made returning to SF a little easier.

Being home was really nice. I totally enjoyed hanging out with people and catching up. I feel really lucky to have such a good group of friends. It makes me sad to be so far away sometimes, but I know that we are always there for each other however we can be, no matter what, and that's pretty fricken' awesome.

I realized I didn't take nearly enough pictures while I was home, so if anyone has pictures from while I was in town, please send them! Thank you!